Cornyn: Obama handling of Bergdahl case ‘troubling’

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, weighed in on the controversy over the swap of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban prisoners Wednesday, falling in line with other lawmakers who say the president should have consulted Congress before brokering the deal.

Like many of his colleagues, Cornyn said the way Barack Obama’s administration handled the negotiations was “troubling.” Both Democrats and Republicans have pointed out that the president, in violation of the law, failed to notify Congress about the prisoner exchange at least 30 days before it occurred.

Cornyn will join fellow senators Wednesday evening on Capitol Hill to meet privately with senior White House officials, but the Texas lawmaker said the briefing comes too late.

“This administration seems to do things backward. This kind of consultation and notification should have occurred before this transaction played out,” Cornyn said. “I guess they’re trying to play a little bit of catch up.”

Cornyn added that in his more than 10 years in office, senators rarely learn more from private meetings with administration officials than they do through the press.

The president has defended the negotiations, insisting that secrecy and quick action were critical to their success.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was the only member of Congress who knew about the swap before it took place Saturday. Two senior Democrats who serve on the senate’s intelligence committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have poked holes in statements about the president deliberating with legislators beforehand.

Cornyn said in addition to “bipartisan concern” over keeping the talks under wraps, he worries the exchange will set a precedent with the Taliban – in which officials consider one American soldier to be worth five Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including two senior commanders.

“The administration appeared not to think this all the way through,” Cornyn said. He plans to join Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., in calling on the White House to declassify information about the five detainees, who he said had “American blood on their hands” and could still threaten U.S. forces or allies.

Still, he said he lacked enough information to judge whether Obama made the right choice, adding that he does not “begrudge” Bergdahl himself.

“There is more complexity to this story that I think we need to drill down and get to the bottom of,” he said.

Several men who served with Bergdahl have accused him of deserting the army, with some claiming that between two and eight soldiers died because of the search for him after he left his post in Afghanistan. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey has said that the army will investigate the circumstances of Bergdahl’s capture after the sergeant has time to recover from his five years in captivity.

Cornyn said the allegations add a “layer of intrigue” to a complicated situation.